In Tokyo to preside over the launch of Microsoft’s new Windows Live services, Ballmer said he still doesn’t see Google as much of a threat to Microsoft’s loss-making online services business. “Google is not ahead of us,” he told reporters, adding “in the area of search specifically, Google would lead.”

And what of the mobile-platform market and Google’s designs on it? Surely, the impressive membership of the search giant’s Open Handset Alliance is cause for some concern. Not at all. The mobile-platform market is “Microsoft’s world” and Google’s Android platform is vaporware. “…We have great momentum, we’ve brought our Windows Mobile 6 software to market, we’re driving forward on our future releases and we’ll have to see what Google does,” said Ballmer. “Right now they have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices and they’re welcome in our world.”

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